Concrete wall form with a particular panel hinge arrangement



Dec. 12, 1967 w. D. WILLIAMS 3,357,673

CONCRETE WALL FORM WITH A PARTICULAR PANEL HINGE ARRANGEMENT Filed June39, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR WALTER 0. wnu. IAMS ATT'VY Dec. 12,1967 3,357,673

CONCRETE WALL FORM WITH A PARTICULAR PANEL HINGE ARRANGEMENT 4- W. D.WILLIAMS 2 SheetsSheet 2 I II Ilil-I-Lll. l-lllllll ail Filed June 30,1965 INVENTOR WALTER D WILLIAMS United States Patent 3,357,673 CONCRETEWALL FGRM WITH A PARTICULAR PANEL HINGE ARRANGEMENT Walter D. Wiiiiams,River Forest, 111., assignor to Symons Mfg. Company, Des Piaines, 111.,a corporation of Delaware Filed June 30, 1965, Ser. No. 468,520

1 Claim. (Cl. 249-194) The present invention relates generally toconcrete wall forms and has particular reference to a concrete wall formemploying panels which are known in the concrete construction industryas Steel-Ply panels and are manu.

factured and sold by Symons Mfg. Company of Des Plaines, 111., U.S.A.Steel-Ply panels, in various forms, are widely used in the buildingindustry. They are assembled at the factory rather than in the field,and when shipped to a given scene of installation or construction, theyare designed to be used with various concrete hardware articles whichare of special construction and permit the panels to be easily erectedin a wall form installation and subsequently removed from theinstallation for reuse after they have served their intended purpose.

A concrete form panel of the Steel-Ply type consists essentially of ashallow tray-like structure including a rectangular plywood facing, theedges of which are completely encased in a rectangular steel reinforcingframe comprising longitudinaland transverse frame members, together witha series of parallel, spaced apart, transverse crossbars which extendbetween the longitudinal frame members and lend reinforcement to themedial or central regions of the plywood facing by constituting abacking therefor. Such a panel is adapted to be set up for wall formwork in edge-to-edge relationship with similar panels in such a mannerthat the plywood facings of the panel lie in a common vertical plane.Where angular concrete corners are concerned, such, for example, as inthe erection of a rectangular concrete column, or where a concrete wallmakes a right angle bend, two of the panels are set up in edge-to-edgerelationship but with the adjacent plywood facings extending at a rightangle to each other, outside 90 angle irons being required to effect theconnection between the two panels. Such right angle bends aresuificiently common as to warrant the manufacture of angle irons inappropriate lengths to accommodate the various standard sizes in whichthe Steel-Ply panels are manufactured, as Well as the stocking of suchangle irons in inventory by contractors. However, with the advent ofmany odd-shaped modern buildings representing the current trend towardmodern and far out architecture, more and more non-right angle cornersare encountered and involving both inside angles of either an acute oran obtuse nature, and outside or reflex angles whose supplements areeither acute or obtuse. Heretofore, in order to accommodate suchnon-right angle corners and enable the positioning of wall form panelsappropriately, it has been customary for the contractor to order thenecessary angle irons on a special basis, thus resulting in extrashipping costs and other additional expense. Installation procedures aresometimes hampered due to lack of proper working space, especially wheresmall acute angles are involved.

The present invention is designed to overcome the above-notedlimitations that are attendant upon the erection of concrete wall formsinvolving such odd or nonright angle corners and toward this end, theinvention contemplates the provision of a novel panel hinge which, whenapplied to a pair of adjacent Steel-Ply or similar concrete wall formpanels for use in a concrete wall form installation, will permit aninfinite relative swinging adjustment of the two panels whereby thegeneral planes of r 3,357,673 Patented Dec. 12, 1967 the panels may becaused to assume an infinite range of angles extending from a very smallacute angle to a very large obtuse or reflex angle. The panel hinge ofthe present invention is, furthermore, useable without any modificationwhatsoever and without altering its mode of attachment to the panels inthe formation of either inside or outside angles or corners.

The provision of such a panel hinge, as well as a novel concrete wallform embodying such a hinge, constitutes the principal object of thepresent invention.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will readily suggestthemselves as the nature of the invention is better understood from aconsideration of the following detailed description.

In the accompanying two sheets of drawings forming a part of thisspecification, one embodiment of a panel hinge constructed according tothe present invention has been shown in detail and several exemplaryuses thereof in a wall form installation have been portrayed.

In these drawings:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view, partly in section, of aconcrete wall form employing two panel hinges embodying the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged top plan view of the concrete wall form which isshown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a reduced outside perspective view of the outside part of thestructure of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a reduced inside perspective view of the inside part of thestructure of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of one of the panel hinges of the presentinvention, showing the same in the condition which it assumes when it isemployed in connection wigi the formation of an outside or reflex anglecorner; an

FIG. 6 is a perspective view similar to FIG..5 but showing the otherpanel hinge in the condition it assumes when it is employed inconnection with the formation of an inside acute angle.

Referring now to the drawings in detail and in particular to FIGS. 1 and2, a fragmentary corner portion of a complete concrete wall forminstallation is designated in its entirety by the reference numeral 10,and it is comprised of an inside wall form assembly 12. and an outsidewall form assembly 14. The illustrated portion of the inside wall formassembly 12 includes three full size standard Steel-Ply panels 16 andone of the panel hinges 18 of the present invention. The illustratedportion of the outside wall form assembly 14 includes three full sizestandard Steel-Ply panels 16, two filler panels 20, and another of thepanel hinges 18. The concrete Wall form assemblies 12 and 14 aremaintained in spaced apart relationship by means of conventionalhorizontally extending tie rods 22. The panels 16 and the hinge 18 ofthe inside wall form assembly 12 are so positioned as to accommodate theforming of an inside acute angle corner in the wall structure which isto be formed by the pouring of wet concrete into the space existingbetween the two form assemblies 12 and 14. The panels and the hinge ofthe outside wall form assembly 14 are so positioned as to accommodatethe forming of an outside angle corner which is a supplement of the sideacute angle corner that is formed by the inside wall form assembly 12.For exemplary purposes, the angles that have been selected forillustration are and 285 and they have been so labelled in FIGS. 1 and2.

In order that the nature, function and operation: of the panel hinges 18of the present invention may be better understood, it is deemednecessary that the nature of the Steel-Ply panels 16 first beunderstood. Each panel 16 is of the prefabricated type. It is of openshallow traylike design and comprises a rectangular plywood facing 30and a marginal steel reinforcing frame. The latter includes longitudinalframe members 32 and transverse frame members 34. Each of the panels 16is shown as being positioned with its longitudinal frame members 32extending vertically and with its transverse frame members 34 extendinghorizontally, this being the normal position of the panel when it isemployed with similar panels in a conventional concrete wall forminstallation. Thus, further reference to any of the panels 16 will bemade on the basis of its vertical position in a concrete wall form. Atappropriate levels in each of the panels 16, intermediate horizontalcrossbars 36 extend between and are welded to the opposed vertical framemembers 32. The various crossbars 36 of each panel are in the form ofangle bars having vertical flanges 33 fitting flatly against the plywoodfacing 30 for reinforcing purposes and horizontal flanges 40 whichextend at a right angle to the plywood facing. The frame members 32 and34 are in the form of structural steel bars which are of shallow channelshape so far as cross section is concerned. Each bar includes inside andoutside outwardly extending marginal ribs 42 and 44 and a connectingbase or web 46. On the side of each web that is opposite the ribs 42 and44 is a laterally and inwardly extending seating flange 46 on which theadjacent edge portion of the plywood facing 30 seats, the inside face ofthe facing being flush or coplanar with the inside edges of the framemembers 32 and 34. At vertically spaced regions along the marginal ribs42 and 44, pairs of transversely registering notches 50 are cut andthese notches, when the frame members of a given panel are in contiguitywith the frame members of adjacent panels, define channel voids throughwhich the looped ends of the tie rods 22 may pass when the variouspanels 16 are employed as parts of a concrete wall form installation. Arectangular slot 52 is formed in the web portion of each frame member atthe level of each pair of notches 50 and such slot is adapted to receivetherethrough the slotted shank portion of a conventional T-bolt 54, thebolt shank passing the adjacent tie rod loop and through a complementalsimilar slot in the web portion of the adjacent frame member. A wedge 56is driven through the slotted shank of each T-bolt 54 as shown in thelower right-hand corner of FIG. 1 so that the contiguous or abuttingframe members of adjoining panels are drawn tightly together andmaintained in firmly clamped coplanar relationship. This manner ofconnection between adjacent Steel-Ply panels is a basic feature of suchpanels and no claim is made here to any novelty therein. Such manner ofpanel connection has been described herein inasmuch as the rectangularslots 52 in the web portions 46 of the panel members cooperate with thepanel hinges 18 of the present invention in a novel manner that will bedescribed subsequently when the nature of these hinge panels is betterunderstood.

The filler panels 20 of the outside wall form assembly are the same indesign and construction as the Steel-Ply panels 16 and will hereafter beconsidered as panels 16. Each of the two panel hinges 18 which areillustrated herein is of the leaf hinge type, which is to say, itcomprises two generally planar hinge leaves 60 and 62 (see particularlyFIGS. and 6) which are connected together for relative swinging movementabout the axis of a vertically extending connecting hinge pin 64. Thehinge pin 64 of each panel hinge passes through a series of interlacedtubular hinge eyes 66 in the usual manner of ,a conventional pianohinge. The axial extent of each panel hinge 18 is equal to thelongitudinal extent of the panels 16 to which the hinge is adapted to beapplied, which is to say, that the height of the hinge leaves 60 and 62is approximately equal to the length of the vertical frame members 32.The panel hinges 18 may, therefore, be manufactured in standard lengthscommensurate with or corresponding to the lengths of the variousstandard size Steel-Ply panels that are used in the concrete wall forminstallations 10. The width or radial extent of the hinge leaves 60 and62 of the panel hinges may, however, remain constant, it being on theorder of six inches. The outer edge or marginal regions of the hingeleaves 69 and 62 of each panel hinge 18 are turned laterally asindicated at 68 and '70, thus providing a pair of vertical attachmentflanges 72 by means of which the panel hinge may be connected toadjacent panels 16.

To effect the connection of the panel hinges 18 to the adjacent panels16, the vertical attachment flanges 72 on the hinge leaves 60 and 62 areformed with rows of spaced slots 74, the number and spacing of theseslots being commensurate with the number and spacing of the slots 52 inthe webs 46 of the vertical frame members 32. Attachment of the panelhinges 18 to adjacent panels 16 is made by aligning the slots 74 in thevertical attachment flanges 72 with the slots 52 in the webs of theadjacent vertical frame members 32 and then securing the attachmentflanges in position against said frame members (see FIGS. 2, 3 and 4) bymeans of conventional T-bolts 75 and wedges 76 which are identical withthe T-bolts 54 and the wedges 56 that are employed for holding adjacentpanels 16 together in edge-to-edge relationship.

It is to be noted at this point that regardless of whether the T-boltand wedge assemblies are employed for maintaining two adjacent panels inedge-to-edge relationship or for attaching a panel hinge 18 to theadjacent edges of two angularly disposed panels, the T-bolts are passedthrough the slots 52 in the webs 46 of the vertical frame members 32from outside the panel confines so that the wedges of the assembliesassume positions within the panel confines. In order to permit downwarddriving of the wedges through the slots in the shank portions of theT-bolts, clearance slots 78 are provided in the horizontal flanges 40 ofthe crossbars 36 and these clearance slots immediately underlie theslots in the shank portions of the T-bolts when the latter are insertedthrough the slots 52 in the webs of the vertical frame members 32.

As best seen in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6, the panel hinges 18 of the presentinvention are provided with vertical series of reinforcing gusset plates80. These plates are generally rectangular and they fill the right anglecorners which exist between the two hinge leaves 60 and 62 and theirrespective laterally turned attachment flanges 72. The specific numberof such gusset plates and their spacing along the corners which theyfill are not critical. In the illustrated form of each panel hinge 18,three gusset plates are provided on each hinge leaf. It will beunderstood, however, that a greater or lesser number of these gussetplates 80 may be employed if desired. The gusset plates 80 on one hingeleaf are, of course, offset slightly from the gusset plates on the otherhinge leaf so that there will be no interference between these plateswhen the two leaves are swung toward each other in the formation of ahinge angle of small acute proportions. The various gusset plates 80 areseparately formed from the hinge leaves and are welded in positionthereon in edgeto-face relationship.

Referring again to FIGS. 1 and 2, it will be observed that the two panelhinges 18 are identical and both of them have their hinge leaves 60 and62 extending at an angle of about 75 to each other. However, since thehinge 18 of the inside wall form assembly 12 is designed to produce aninside acute angle corner in the finished concrete wall, such hinge isso disposed that the gusset plates 80 thereof oppose one another onopposite sides of the hinge pin 64. On the other hand, since the hingeof the outside wall form assembly 14 is designed to produce an outsidereflex angle corner in the finished concrete wall, such hinge is sodisposed that the gusset plates 80 thereof face outwardly away from oneanother on opposite sides of the hinge pin 64. It is one of the salientfeatures of the present invention that in either condition of a panelhinge 18, the concrete-contacting sides of the hinge leaves 60 and 62present smooth unbroken continuations of the adjacent plywood facings30. To attain this coplanar relationship of the panel facings and thehinge leaves of the panel hinges, it is, of course, necessary that panelhinges be initially applied to the adjacent panels with their gussetplates 80 extending in the same direction from the plywood facings asthe direction of the frame members 32 and 34 of the reinforcing framesaround the facings. Due to the specific offset spacing of the gussetplates 8-0 on the hinge leaves 66 and 62, the hinge leaves are notprecisely identical. However, for all practical purposes, these leavesare functionally equivalent so that in the application of a panel hinge18 to a given panel, reversibility of the hinge is possible providing acoplanar relationship of hinge leaves and plywood facings is maintained.Stated otherwise, the elongated panel hinges 18 are reversible inend-mend fashion. To further illustrate this reversibility, it will beobserved that in FIG. 2, one of the hinges 18 is reversed in itsorientation so that the hinge leaf 61 thereof opposes the hinge leaf 62of the other panel hinge. The only effect of this reversal inorientation is that the direction of offset between opposing gussetplates 80 will be reversed.

Finally, it is to be observed that since conventional Steel-Ply panelsare intended for panel matching across the concrete wall forminstallation so that each panel on one wall form assembly is opposed bya substantially identical panel on the opposite wall form assembly, thediagonal offset that is occasioned by the nesting of one panel hinge 13within another panel hinge for corner producing purposes as illustratedin FIG. 2 necessitates the use of a fractional width filler panel 20 oneach hinge leaf of the outside panel hinge 18. The effective Width ofsuch filler panels 20 will, of course, be a combined function ofeffective concrete wall form width and the magnitude of the cornerangles involved. The greater the effective Width of the wall form, thewider will be the employed filler panels. The greater the departure ofthe involved angles from a right angle, the wider will be the fillerpanels 20.

From the above description, it Will be appreciated that the presentpanel hinge may be installed upon a pair of adjacent panels prior toerection of the panels and the assembly may be transported to the sceneof installation at which time the panels need only be attached toadjacent panels and the panels positioned in their proper orientedrelationship in the concrete wall form installation with no thoughtbeing given to the fitting of panels together to produce the desiredcorner angle. Regardless of the magnitude of the involved angle, theproper angular relationship between the various hinge leaves 60 and 62will automatically be attained once the panels are properly set up inthe installation.

The invention is not to be limited to the exact arrangement of partsshown in the accompanying drawings or described in this specification asvarious changes in the details of construction may be resorted towithout departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Therefore,only insofar as the invention is particularly pointed out in theaccompanying claim is the same to be limited.

Having thus described the invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

For use in a concrete wall form installation in the production ofexposed angular Wall corners ranging from a small acute inside angle toa large reflex outside angle, the combination of a pair of similarrectangular panels each of which is comprised of a plywood panel facingbounded by a rectangular marginal steel reinforcing frame includinglongitudinal and transverse frame members which extend laterally fromone side of the panel facing, the longitudinal frame members beingformed with respective series of longitudinally spaced slots therein, apanel hinge connecting one pair of opposed adjacent longitudnal edges ofsaid panels together and permitting relative swinging movement of thepanels toward and away from each other in either face-to-face orback-toback relationship, said panel hinge comprising two elongatedplanar panel leaves hingedly connected together along adjacent proximatelongitudinal edges by a pianotype hinge connection includinginterfitting alternately arranged hinge eyes on the two leaves and ahinge pin loosely projecting through said hinge eyes, the distallongitudinal edge regions of said leaves being turned laterally toprovide a pair of attachment flanges, said attachment flanges beingformed with a series of longitudinally spaced slots therein the spacingof which is commensurate with the spacing of the slots in said adjacentlongitudinal frame members, said attachment flanges being substantiallycoextensive with and bearing against the adjacent frame members with theslots thereof in paired register with the slots in the adjacent framemembers and with the panel leaves of the hinge extending in coplanar andcontiguous edge-to-edge relationship with respect to the plywood panelfacings, fastening devices projecting through the paired slots andserving to draw together the attachment flanges of the panel hinge andthe longitudinal frame members of the panels, and a series oflongitudinally spaced gusset plates extending between each of said hingeleaves and its associated attachment flange and disposed in rightangular on-edge relationship with respect to both the attachment flangesand leaves, said gusset plates on the two hinge leaves being staggeredWith respect to each other so that when the panel hinge is folded so asclosely to approach its condition of minimum angularity, the gussetplates of the two hinge leaves will overlap one another.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 969,248 9/1910 Davis et al. 249-X 1,122,771 12/ 1914 Lambie 249-27 2,017,553 10/1953 Troiel 249-26 X2,273,109 2/ 1942 Hightower 249--13 2,849,780 9/ 1950 Hillberg 249-194 X2,976,597 3/ 1961 Elam 24947 WILLIAM J. STEPHENSON, Primary Examiner.

